The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s most prestigious annual Thoroughbred horse race. Held at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria, it is a 3,200-meter handicap race for horses three years old and over.
Dating back to 1861, the Melbourne Cup takes place on the first Tuesday of November as the highlight of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. Nicknamed “the race that stops a nation”, up to 100,000 spectators usually attend the Cup in person while millions watch it live across Australia. The Melbourne Cup has a total prize pool of around AU$ 8 million, making it one of the wealthiest turf races in the world.
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History
The Melbourne Cup originated in 1861 when the Victoria Turf Club devised a handicap horse race over two miles at Flemington Racecourse to boost their autumn race meeting attendance. Initially, the Melbourne Cup was a low-key local event with 17 horses competing for prize money of just 710 pounds before a crowd of 4,000 people. As Melbourne developed into Australia’s largest and wealthiest city in the late 1800s, the Melbourne Cup grew in stature to become Australia’s most important annual horse race.
By the early 1900s, the Melbourne Cup was known as “the race that stops a nation”, thanks to soaring attendance and its gaining significance as a public holiday across the country. These days, the Melbourne Cup still stops in Australia every first Tuesday of November, with 100,000 trackside and millions more watching globally as the wealthiest and most prestigious handicap race in the southern hemisphere.
Melbourne Cup Carnival 2024 Schedule
The 2024 Melbourne Cup Carnival schedule is mentioned below.
Penfolds Victoria Derby Day: Saturday 2nd November 2024
Key race: Victoria Derby
Lexus Melbourne Cup Day: Tuesday 5th November 2024
Key race: Melbourne Cup
VRC Oaks Day: Thursday 7th November 2024
Key race: VRC Oaks
TAB Champions Stakes Day: Saturday 9th November 2024
Key race: TAB Champions Stakes
Melbourne Cup 2024 Tickets
Best deals on early Melbourne Cup 2024 Tickets are available on select ticket products until 31st January 2024. Please check the official ticketing channel for complete details.
Interesting Facts
- The first Melbourne Cup in 1861 had a prize pool of only £710, compared to over AU$8 million today.
- The most successful Melbourne Cup horse was Makybe Diva, which won three Cups between 2003 and 2005.
- The most successful jockey was Bobby Lewis, who won the Cup an astonishing four times in the 1902, 1915, 1919 and 1927 editions.
- The heaviest horse to win the Cup was the New Zealand horse Beldale Ball, weighing 699kg for his 1980 victory.
- The same family crafted the Melbourne Cup trophy for almost 40 years, using over 2kg of 18-carat gold.
- Fashions on the Field began in 1962 and has become a hugely popular event for stylish racegoers.
- The smallest winning margin was in a dead heat in 2014 between Protectionist and Red Cadeaux, the only tie in Cup history.
- In Australia, the Melbourne Cup has the tradition of a public holiday for all but essential services and attracts Australia’s most significant betting pools.
- An average of 90,000 people attend the Cup in person, while over 700 million watch Australia’s most iconic horse race globally.
